Claiming Kant for Feminism: A Discussion of Anderson's Re-visioning Gender in Philosophy of Religion

I wish to expose the possibility of a Kantian feminism made actual by Pamela Sue Anderson’s recent book Re-visioning Gender in Philosophy of Religion: Reason, Love and Epistemic Locatedness. In this paper I show how Kantian philosophy structures Anderson’s project, and I argue that in embodying the spirit of Kantian critique, this project may be used to turn that spirit against the letter of its expression in an act that would claim Kant for feminism.     

Some experiments on figural effects in binocular rivalry

The four experiments in this paper were designed to investigate two questions. First, does a stimulus which is dominant in rivalry tend to make nearby stimuli seen by the same eye dominant also? The results suggest that it does not. Second, under what conditions do nearby stimuli, rivalling with opponents of equal strength, rival synchronously? The experiments show that con-tour-segments belonging to the same line, even when seen by different eyes, rival synchronously. Mere contiguity, however, does not lead to synchrony.     

Risk Reduction Behaviors and Provider Communication Following Genetic Counseling and BRCA1 Mutation Testing in an African American Kindred

Little is known about the impact of cancer genetic counseling and testing on health behaviors in racial and ethnic subgroups. This prospective observational study examined use of risk reduction strategies following BRCA1 counseling and testing. Participants were female members of an African American kindred who received genetic education, counseling and testing (n = 40) and completed a 1-year follow-up interview. Mutation carriers were more likely to opt for breast (100%, 7/7) and ovarian (25%; 1 of 4) cancer surveillance than prophylactic surgery. Following genetic counseling, 71% (5/7) of the BRCA1 carriers who opted for surveillance reported having a mammogram within the year following receipt of their genetic test results. Ovarian cancer screening among mutation carriers increased from 0% at baseline to 25% (one of four) at 1 year. Compared to noncarriers (23%, 7/30), carriers (70%, 7/10) were more likely to discuss their BRCA1 test results with their primary health care providers. Surveillance for breast cancer was preferred to prophylactic surgery and chemoprevention as a way to reduce risk for these cancers. Our data indicate that patient-provider communication about BRCA1 test results is suboptimal.     

‘What do you mean by depression?’—A study of the relationship between antidepressive activity and personal concepts of depression

This study explores the relationship between a subject's concept of depression and his reported antidepressive activities. A pilot study is reported which was used to develop a method of classification of subjects' concepts of depression in terms of depth of depression and degree of external causality perceived. The majority of the subjects studied fitted into a group who see depression as a major disturbance of mood unrelated to external events; this was true for both the pilot and main studies. The main study applied the depressive classification method to an investigation of the relationship between depressive concept group and qualitative and quantitative aspects of reported repertoires for coping with depression. A major concept of depression was shown to be associated with a high frequency of reported antidepressive activity, but ANOVAR revealed no other significant main effect on quantitative analysis. Various complex interactions of sex. depth of concept and locus of concept were observed. A group of psychiatric inpatients were seen to differ in quantitative and qualitative aspects of reported antidepressive behaviour from the remainder of the population studied; the implications of these findings for further research are discussed.     

Collaborative coping and daily mood in couples dealing with prostate cancer

Collaborative coping (i.e., spouses pooling resources and problem solving jointly) may be associated with better daily mood because of heightened perceptions of efficacy in coping with stressful events. The study examined the daily processes of collaborative coping (individuals' perceptions that the spouse collaborated), perceived coping effectiveness (ratings of how well they dealt with the event), and mood (i.e., Positive and Negative Affect Scale) across 14 days in 57 older couples coping with stressors involving the husband's prostate cancer and daily life in general. In hierarchical multivariate linear models, collaborative coping was associated with more positive same-day mood for both husbands and wives and less negative mood for wives only. These associations were partially mediated by heightened perceptions of coping effectiveness. Exploratory analyses revealed that collaborative coping was more frequent among wives who performed more poorly on cognitive tests and couples who reported greater marital satisfaction and more frequently using collaboration to make decisions. The results suggest that older couples may benefit from collaborative coping in dealing with problems surrounding illness.     

Aging and cardiovascular reactivity to stress: longitudinal evidence for changes in stress reactivity

Although age differences in cardiovascular function are well documented, little research has provided longitudinal evidence for age-related changes in cardiovascular reactivity to stress. In this study, the authors report such data from a follow-up of their prior work (B. N. Uchino, D. Uno, J. Holt-Lunstad, & J. B. Flinders, 1999) with participants between the ages of 30 to 70 (n=108, mean follow-up=10 months, range=7 to 16 months). Results revealed longitudinal evidence for an age-related increase in systolic blood-pressure reactivity and parasympathetic withdrawal to acute stress. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of the increased cardiovascular disease risk with age, as well as the links between aging, emotions, and physiology.